CoD: CDL Kickoff Classic – Day 1 Recap

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CoD: CDL Kickoff Classic – Day 1 Recap

Day 1 of the Kickoff Classic provided the competitive COD we all know and love, here’s what went down.


Yesterday we saw our first glimpse of Call of Duty League action for the 2021 season. While there was nothing on the line, and the matches seemed like glorified scrims to players, the viewers were hyped to see the big teams go up against each other. With some massive games, here’s what happened in Day One of the Kickoff Classic.

Dallas Empire 3-0 New York Subliners

The Dallas Empire picked up where they left off in the 2020 Call of Duty League season. More importantly, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro continued his dominance, putting up a massive 35 kills and a 2.06 K/D in Map 1 to win 250-192.

It didn't take long for Dallas to pull out some clutches either, with Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal performing the first 1v3 in the Black Ops Cold War season. This 6-2 win saw dominance from the Empire, but with a new Subliners roster, Search and Destroy was always going to be a slight issue.

We also got to see our first look at competitive Raid in this match. Here, Dallas closed out a 3-1 Control win to take the series 3-0. Ian “Crimsix” Porter dominated, putting up 34 kills across the four rounds to win the map. While Dallas dominated the series, the rookie Diamondcon made an impression with a solid 0.90 overall K/D throughout the series.

Los Angeles Guerrillas 3-2 Seattle Surge

In what was anticipated to be the closest match of the night, the Los Angeles Guerrillas started off strong with a 250-123 Raid Hardpoint. This was an excellent start from the Guerrillas, with every player finishing the map with a positive K/D.

A strong comeback in Search and Destroy saw Seattle even the series at 1-1. In this map, Prestinni excelled, going 11-6 and topping the leaderboard. The momentum from this win was taken into Control where Seattle took a 2-1 series lead. While they lost the map, it was Apathy who performed especially well in this map, boasting a 1.56 K/D.

Map 4 was extremely close, finishing 250-234. The Guerrillas evened the series here, with Assault and Silly putting up 1.64 and 1.50 K/D’s respectively. While it got extremely close to a Seattle win, the Guerrillas were able to hold down the final hardpoint and the spawns were just too far away for Surge.

Finally, Apathy returned home to Garrison, and almost single-handedly won the map in the vent. His 9-4 performance gave hima 2.25 K/D, and was the main factor in the Guerrillas win. He was impossible to remove from the vents, and it appears we’re seeing end of cycle Apathy early this year!

Florida Mutineers 3-2 Atlanta FaZe

Another highly anticipated match saw Atlanta FaZe take on the Florida Mutineers. FaZe were heavily favored in this matchup, however the Mutineers came out on top. In map one, FaZe took their time to show up[, but once they did it was a clinical performance. Simp’s 1.53 K/D is something we are already used to, and will continue to see this year.

While a comeback was attempted from FaZe, Florida, and more specifically Skyz were too hard to beat. Skyz put up 15 kills with a 2.14 K/D, showing that he is still as dominant in Black Ops Cold War as he was in Modern Warfare.

In Control, aBeZy excelled with 36 kills, however rookie Neptune also showed some prowess with 33 kills and a 1.14 K/D. FaZe narrowly took the map 3-2 to gain a 2-1 lead in the series. However, Crossroads Hardpoint was a textbook performance from Florida. Their 250-117 victory was clinical, with every player on the roster going positive. Neptune topped the scoreboard with a 1.44 K/D, proving that he can play in the Pro League.

Finally, Florida were too good in Search and Destroy. Slacked showed his veteran abilities with multiple extremely smart plays, while Owakening slayed out with 10 kills and a 2.00 K/D. This match was maybe the most unexpected result of the night, however it gives us great expectations for the season to come.

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Charlie Cater
Charlie "MiniTates" Cater has been an esports writer since May 2020, specialising in Call of Duty. He is also a University Student studying esports.